Integrative leadership for collaborative governance: Civic engagement in Seattle

Abstract

This article distills concepts and tools from the literatures on civic engagement, collaborative management, and conflict resolution into a parsimonious framework of tactics and constructs for integrative leadership. Using these tactics and constructs to compare cases of civic engagement drawn from the administration of Seattle Mayor Norman Rice (1990–98), the article demonstrates the framework's analytic potential for scholars and its strategic relevance for public leaders. The comparison of the cases suggests that the framework enables scholars and practitioners to distinguish meaningful changes in key dimensions of collaborative governance related to leadership tactics, stake holders' interpretations, and results. The conclusion proposes six hypotheses and explores theoretical implications for future research.